AISHAH'S MUSINGS

#LoveWITHAccountability is a new project from Aishah Shahidah Simmons that is funded by Just Beginnings Collaborative and seeks to address what accountability can look like for survivors of child sexual abuse, adult rape and all forms of sexual violence.

I experientially know this truth from my adult rape and multiple romantic heartaches over the past two decades. However I never ever in my best dreams thought that I would be able to know this truth in response to my child sexual abuse. I have been a #phoenixRISING since January 2015 when I drew a non-negotiable line in the sand with both of my divorced parents. But, I didn't fully believe there would be full accountability from either one of my parents...just when I truly believed I essentially gave up attachment to their loving me accountably, my mother came to grips with and named how she nor my dad protected me as a child and forced me to engage with my harm doer without his ever being held accountable for over three decades. Her revelation happened less than four months ago, 37 years after I was first molested for a period of two years.

While I firmly believe that my healing cannot be contingent upon other peoples words and actions, I experientially know that the work that my mother and I are doing privately and also publicly is fertile ground from which new seeds are blooming.

#LoveWITHAccountability is a new project that is funded by Just Beginnings Collaborative and seeks to address what accountability can look like for survivors of child sexual abuse, adult rape and all forms of sexual violence.